Sitting on dharna in Amreli, father of murdered Dalit youth seek justice from Gujarat CM

By Our Representative
In a letter, Ratilal Ramjibhai Zala, father of Mahesh Ratilal Zala, who was murdered in Amreli town on October 1, 2018, has asked Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani to ensure that the accused should be arrested forthwith. Currently, the Zala family, with the support of other Dalit activists under the leadership of human rights defender Kantilal Parmar, are sitting on dharna in front of the district collector’s office demanding justice.
Mahesh was killed by three persons in Amreli, yet, says the letter, till today none of the three accused have been arrested. All three have run away from their residence. As a consequence of this incident, his family members are living under fear. Hence, there is an urgent need to arrest the accused. As many as 45 days have passed, yet the accused are roaming free.
The letter also asks the chief minister to immediately respond to the human rights violation by compensating the family as per rule 12(4) of the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1995, with pension every month to a dependent family member. Also, the family members should be adequately rehabilitated under rule 15 the Act 1995 by providing land for agriculture, house, or employment in the state government.
The letter wants that the state government should appoint a special public prosecutor to fight the case in the court, and police protection should provide round to the family round the clock. Demanding handing over of investigation to CBI or SIT, it adds, the authorities should invoke IPC 114, 120(B) and 3(2)(5a), even as lodging separate FIR against persons who gave shelter to the accused after committing the crime.

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Rushdie, Pamuk, 260 writers tell Modi: Aatish episode casts chill on public discourse

Counterview Desk
As many as 260 writers, journalists, artists, academics and activists across the world, including Salman Rushdie, British Indian novelist, Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in literature, and Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet and novelist, have called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the decision to strip British Indian writer Aatish Taseer of his overseas Indian citizenship.

Visually challenged lady seeks appointment with Gujarat CM, is 'unofficially' detained

By Pankti Jog*
It was a usual noon of November 10. I got a phone call on our Right to Information (RTI) helpline No 9924085000 from Ranjanben of Khambhat, narrating her “disgraceful” experience after she had requested for an appointment with Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani. She wanted to meet Rupani, on tour of the Khambhat area in Central Gujarat as part of his Janvikas Jumbesh (Campaign for Development).

There may have been Buddhist stupa at Babri site during Gupta period: Archeologist

By Rajiv Shah
A top-notch archeologist, Prof Supriya Varma, who served as an observer during the excavation of the Babri Masjid site in early 2000s along with another archeologist, Jaya Menon, has controversially stated that not only was there "no temple under the Babri Masjid”, if one goes “beyond” the 12th century to 4th to 6th century, i.e. the Gupta period, “there seems to be a Buddhist stupa.”

VHP doesn't represent all Hindus, Sunni Waqf Board all Muslims: NAPM on SC ruling

Counterview Desk
India's top civil rights network, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), even as describing the Supreme Court's Ayodhya judgement unjust, has said, it is an "assault on the secular fabric of the Constitution". In a statement signed by top social workers and activists, NAPM said, "The judgement conveys an impression to Muslims that, despite being equal citizens of the country, their rights are not equal before the law."

Gujarat refusal to observe Maulana Azad's birthday as Education Day 'discriminatory'

By Our Representative
The Gujarat government decision not to celebrate the National Education Day on !monday has gone controversial. Civil society organizations have particularly wondered whether the state government is shying away from the occasion, especially against the backdrop of "deteriorating" level of education in Gujarat.

Church in India 'seems to have lost' moral compass of unequivocal support to the poor

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ*
In 2017, Pope Francis dedicated a special day, to be observed by the Universal Church, every year, as the ‘World Day of the Poor’. This year it will be observed on November 17 on the theme ‘The hope of the poor shall not perish for ever’; in a message for the day Pope Francis says:

Violent 'Ajodhya' campaign in 1840s after British captured Kabul, destroyed Jama Masjid

Counterview Desk Irfan Ahmad, professor at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany, and author of “Islamism and Democracy in India” (Princeton University Press, 2009), short-listed for the 2011 International Convention of Asian Scholars Book Prize for the best study in Social Sciences, in his "initial thoughts" on the Supreme Court judgment on the Babri-Jam Janmaboomi dispute has said, while order was “lawful”, it was also “awful.”

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